The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for uniquely identifying individuals and security systems and which rely upon such an identification. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for uniquely identifying an individual by obtaining and characterizing unique physical characteristics of the individual.
Identification systems and methods are well known in the art and fall into different classifications. One group of systems and methods involves the finger prints and/or palm prints of individuals which are believed to be unique to an individual. Examples of these systems and methods may be had with reference to (among others) U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,636,622 to Clark, 4,582,985 to Lofberg, 4,253,086 to Szwarcbier, 4,246,568 to Paterson, 4,186,378 to Moulton, 3,648,240 to Jacoby et al., and 3,581,282 to Altman. Another set of indentification systems and methods involve the "signature" of an individual, whether it be the written signature or a voice "signature". Examples of these systems and methods may be had by reference to (among others) U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,653,107 to Shojima et al., 4,281,313 to Boldbridge, 4,078,226 to EerNisse at al., 3,896,266 to Waterbury, 3,621,720 to Clark, and 3,412,493 to French.
Yet another identification system known in the art is to use the facial curves of an individual to establish identification. The facial curve method is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,805,238 to Rothfjell where the facial curves (two or three dimensional) of an individual taken from full-face, forty-five degree angle, and profile (ninety degree angle) photographs may be defined and stored on an identity card or in a data processing machine. Identification of the individual may be had by first visually comparing the photographs on the identity card to the individual presenting the card, and then, if desired, taking an image of the individual and automatically comparing by computer the curves stored on the identity card with curves derived from the image. In order to properly compare such an image with the computer data, however, the individual must be positioned and aligned in front of a glass screen.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that security systems typically rely on the positive identification of an individual. One group of security systems relies on identification information contained on plastic cards (apparatus). Examples of the same may be had by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,528,442 to Endo, 4,636,622 to Clark, 4,476,468 to Goldman, 3,806,704 to Shinal, and 3,639,905 to Yaida et al. The information may be stored on the cards in an optical form such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,500,777, 4,542,288, and 4,544,835 to Drexler, or magnetically stored such as is well known in the arts. Other manners of storing information on cards include laminating a bar code to the card such that it may read optically, punching holes in the cards such as was standard in the early computer arts, and implanting actual silicon-type memory devices (such as for example an EEPROM) into the card. Indeed, many bank cards and credit cards in use today store identification information in some of those manners.
While the identification apparatus and methods of the art and the security systems utilizing such identifications provide various degrees of protection, they all suffer from different shortcomings. For example, systems which utilize cards which store personal data, and which require the user to provide the data which may then be compared to the stored data may be compromised in several manners. First, an "intruder" may obtain the personal data, and then may counterfeit a card which would then contain the personal ID of the true card owner. Second, an "intruder" may obtain (e.g. through larceny) the card and the personal data of the card owner. Systems which attempt to circumvent the above-listed shortcomings by comparing information obtained from a user of a card upon use of the card with information stored on the card have other shortcomings. Systems which would require the user to submit to fingerprinting suffer from the difficulties in and the computational requirements of comparing two sets of fingerprints. Moreover, if the security system is to be used by the public at large, the psychological aspects of subjecting an individual to fingerprinting on a regular basis would have to be considered. Also, systems depending on signature comparisons are subject to inaccuracy difficulties such as false acceptance (such as due to forgery), and false rejections. Further yet, almost all security or transaction approval systems presently available are limited to on-line operation and are limited to a certain number of cardholder members that the system will accept. With these systems, the more complex the data contained on the card, the longer becomes the access and processing time. Likewise, it will be appreciated that as the number of users of a typical system increases, the system speed decreases.
Because the shortcomings of the systems and methods of the art, the financial institutions around the globe lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually to fraud. Thus, a fool-proof (intruder-proof) identification system which is practicable from the stand-points of required computation (length of time to establish identity), reliability, and user subjectivity, would be greatly desireable.